HubSpot defines co-marketing as the opportunity for two brands to work together on promotional efforts with a co-branded offer where both companies promote a piece of content or a product, and share results of that promotion with each other. To some, this always sounds like a good idea; collaborating with another company and splitting the cost of advertising, but what happens when the partner you chose looked good in theory and not in reality?Read more…

I don’t know where I’ve been for the last few weeks to miss the launch of Pizza Hut Australia’s Doritos Crunchy Crust, but thank you, God. Unfortunately, because of what it’s doing to my perception of Yum! Brands [but fortunately for this blog], I heard about it on a rerun of Late Night with Seth Meyers. I guess I can’t really knock it until I try it, but some things that don’t seem to go together, probably shouldn’t go together. I’m just saying. Now the awesomeness that is the Doritos Locos Taco from Taco Bell is just that… AWESOME… and amazing, but let’s be real, it didn’t really surprise us in the sense of whether or not it should exist. It seemed like a match made in quick serve heaven. With the Doritos Crunchy Crust pizza on the other hand, it seems to be more of an alarm for me that it does exist.Read more…

One day, my wife and I were walking with a buddy of ours and his young daughter through the hallways of our church. Playing around and focused on other things, as kids often do, she tripped over her own foot and began to fall face first. Her father quickly yells out, “Fall with style!” All of a sudden, as if she had years of training, she lands on her side with the grace of an eighties’ b-boy — hand propping up her head and legs crossed. It was so awesome and memorable that years later I still talk about it like it was last Sunday.

I know that title sounds like I’m about to drop some extremely profound wisdom on you — I just might, we’ll see — but it’s actually the opening to an article about taking advantage of an awesome opportunity; about walking through the proverbial door when you see it is open and not waiting until it is too late. When I began this post, I had in mind to talk about White Castle’s busy year of menu development, but in doing some research, what I noticed was that White Castle’s steady rollout of new menu items was given some momentum; better yet, the door was opened for White Castle and it was up to them to walk through it — they chose to run. Read more…

Last week’s makeover of Ronald McDonald (seen here) got me thinking about my favorite restaurant mascot, the King, and how I miss seeing his glossy, plastic face in commercials. From the moment I heard about Burger King dethroning their infamous mascot — choosing to focus on freshness instead of capitalizing on what the King offers — I knew they had made a bad decision. What does the King offer you ask? Like most mascots, the King offers the wiggle room to do or say something that no real person could ever get away with. Other than Jack in the Box, Burger King was the only quick-serve chain with a sometimes off-color mascot who could play a family man hugging a baby and in the very next scene be half naked seducing someone’s girlfriend. Remember the King’s burger-inspired cologne “Flame?” Remember the commercial? No other mascot could pull that off.Read more…

If you are a smart restaurateur or corporate restaurant marketer, you make an effort to dine at other restaurants — especially your competition. It’s then that you get a better picture of what they do better or differently than you. Often times when doing this recon, the focus is on the service, cleanliness, or food, but there is something else you should be observing… Read more…

Before getting into marketing, I was all about mathematics. Not only did I make it my major when I first went off to college, but I’m actually helping a girl with her Algebra in Starbucks while I type this article. Although I can’t say enough about how glad I am that I got into marketing, I still tend to think about solving problems as equations. The success of your restaurant can even be seen as an equation if you measure success by acquiring customers, gaining their loyalty, then repeating the process. Read more…

Image Caption: Image Credit: Partnership Has Raised More Than $5 Million for Youth OrganizationsExclusive Brief: 0Starbucks announces that through its partnership with Oprah Winfrey, global media leader and philanthropist, sales of Teavana Oprah Chai have raised more than $5 million for youth organizations in the U.S. and Canada.Chains: StarbucksTeavanaMicro […]

Image Caption: Image Credit: The LTO Will be Available Through JuneExclusive Brief: 0Hungry Howie’s Pizza reveals its newest limited time offer, the Cheddar-Cheese-flavored pizza crust. The original crust will be available through June. The concept introduces the Cheddar Cheese crust as an addition to its eight flavored crusts, including: Butter, Butter Chee […]

Image Caption: Image Credit: Puts Coupons and Promotions in Front of Customers in Real TimeExclusive Brief: 0Expecting to “turn social media advertising on its head,” the new social advertising tool for restaurants ChatterHawk launches today, putting coupons and promotions in front of potential customers in real time using patent-pending software technology, […]

Image Caption: Image Credit: Fechtor Advertising creates new ad campaign for Donatos.Exclusive Brief: 0New advertising from Donatos features the experiences around sharing pizza in an integrated campaign created by Fechtor Advertising. “Every piece is important” is the new tagline for the advertising being introduced system-wide by Donatos starting March 30, […]